Why is the Vatican supporting the idea of alien/extraterrestrial existence?

Assuming their existence is real and quite factual, can the human race stomach the broad daylight exposure of aliens? Are we ready for the truth?

The Vatican believes that we are. Recent assertions in the Vatican’s newspaper Osservatore Romano by Jesuit astronomer and Director of the Vatican Observatory, Father José Gabriel Funes states that the possibility of other life forms exists.

Father Funes follows in the path of former Monsignor Corrado Balducci, (died September 20, 2008 in Italy) who stated, “Let me state very clearly: We can exclude that angels use spaceships.” He believed that the possibility of life on other planets could exist, and is in fact “highly probable.”

Disclosure Project founder, Steven Greer, MD has written that the Vatican is ready to be open on the subject. In fact, his book, Hidden Truth explains that the Vatican has been involved in UFO research for some time. In a conversation at the Vatican with former Monsignor Balducci, who at the time was a senior theologian to the Pope, Greer asked, “Do you think these extraterrestrials are a threat or hostile in any way?” Mon. Balducci answered, “Oh, not at all!....You know, God cannot be so foolish as to entrust all of his hopes for intelligent beings just on this planet….You know, I could not be saying these things unless I had the approval of Papa,” (the Pope). Greer adds (p.229) that within Opus Dei are cells with a “very dark view” regarding the disclosure of ETs and UFOs.

Jim Marrs, author of Alien Agenda, writes that the Reverend James A. Wiseman, chairman of the Department of Theology at Catholic University, said, “Personally, I’ve always believed we will find life on other planets.” (p.370)

St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968) stated, “The Lord certainly did not limit His glory to this small Earth. On other planets other beings exist who did not sin and fall as we did."

Ufologist Stanton T. Friedman, author of Flying Saucers and Science appreciates the open-mindedness of the Vatican. He wrote, “Father Balducci, who works at the Vatican, has appeared at some UFO conferences and made it clear that there is no fundamental reason to reject the notion of visiting aliens.”

Why must the Vatican be involved?

The implications of UFO Disclosure strike at the very heart and nature of humanity. Stanton T. Friedman believes that UFO Disclosure will trigger a rise in church attendance and an increase in mental hospital admissions. The fact that the Vatican has stepped forward on the issue is immensely significant. The disclosure of other races in our Universe is mind-bending, and is indeed a spiritual issue, to the point that it is more of a mind-blowing shock than a disclosure. *82% of Americans believe in God. They will need informed spiritual leadership to explain the ramifications of other alien races. We will indeed discover that we humans are one, and we’ll want explanations regarding creation, faith, and redemption in relation to extraterrestrials.

If this disclosure is to proceed, it must be completed slowly, cautiously, and with an awareness that the eye of God is watching all of His creation.

Kelly Jad'on is the founder of www.BasilAndSpice.com, a daily content provider to online news organizations. Begun in 2006, using a SquareSpace blogging platform, Basil & Spice has become a dynamic blogsite hosting over 300 contributors.

In what has to be the height of anthropic assumption, the official astronomer for the pope, Guy Consolmagno, told Great Brtitain's Guardian that he would be willing to baptize space aliens, but "only if they asked" to be baptized. "Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul," he told the newspaper.

Consolmagno said he would be "delighted" if intelligent alien life were discovered, but he reiterated the common belief among astronomers (papal and secular alike) that the odds of finding or communicating with extra terrestrial are effectively zero. Unlike the Catholic church of old, which banned the work of some of the world's greatest astronomers such as Galileo Galilei, Consolmagno made clear in his interview that he feels today's church can peacefully coexist with cutting-edge science.

Consolmagno, who became interested in science through reading science fiction, said that the Vatican was well aware of the latest goings-on in scientific research. "You'd be surprised," he said.

Last year, the Vatican's chief astronomer, he Reverend José Gabriel Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict XVI, said there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations perhaps more evolved than humans.

"In my opinion this possibility exists," Funes said , referring to life on other planets.

"How can we exclude that life has developed elsewhere," he said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, published in its Tuesday-Wednesday edition. The large number of galaxies with their own planets makes this possible, he noted.

Asked if he was referring to beings similar to humans or even more evolved than humans, he said: "Certainly, in a universe this big you can't exclude this hypothesis."

In the interview headlined, "The extraterrestrial is my brother," Funes said he saw no conflict between belief in such beings and faith in God.

"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can't put limits on God's creative freedom. Why can't we speak of a 'brother extraterrestrial'? It would still be part of creation."

Funes, who runs the observatory that is based south of Rome and in Arizona, held out the possibility that the human race might actually be the "lost sheep" of the universe. There could be other beings "who remained in full friendship with their creator," he said.

Funes commentary is a giant step away from the historical record that includes the Inquisition, which condemned Galileo in the 17th century for insisting that the Earth revolved around the Sun. The Roman Catholic Church did not rehabilitate him until 1992.

Funes said he believed as an astronomer that the most likely explanation for the start of the universe was "the big bang," the theory that it sprang into existence from dense matter billions of years ago. But he said this was not in conflict with faith in God as creator. "God is the creator," he said. "There is a sense to creation. We are not children of an accident."

He added: "As an astronomer, I continue to believe that God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the product of something casual but children of a good father who has a project of love in mind for us."

Consolmagno's interview, given as part of his trip to speak at a national science festival in the U.K., came at the same time as the pope's own U.K. trip, where he warned against "atheist extremism."